The Southern Labor Studies Association is now accepting submissions for the Robert H. Zieger Prize for Southern Labor Studies. SLSA awards the Zieger Prize at the Southern Labor Studies Association conference for the best unpublished essay in southern labor studies written by a graduate student or early career scholar, journalist, or activist. The Zieger Prize includes a $1,000 award.

The Robert H. Zieger Prize was established in 2013 with the cooperation of the Zieger family, the Southern Labor Studies Association, and friends and colleagues of Bob and Gay Zieger. The prize is named in honor of the late Professor Robert H. Zieger—teacher, scholar, and tireless union activist. Dr. Zieger was a prolific labor studies scholar whose books include For Jobs and Freedom: Race and Labor in America since 1865, The CIO, 1935-1955, and three field-defining edited volumes on southern labor history. Professor Zieger served as an officer in the North Central Florida Central Labor Council and an organizer for the United Faculty of Florida (FEA/AFL-CIO) at the University of Florida where he was a Distinguished Professor of History.  Along with his wife of fifty years, Gay Zieger, an English professor at Santa Fe College, Bob maintained a strong commitment to social justice his entire life. Many of his former students went on to become labor organizers and educators. SLSA hopes that the spirit of Zieger’s combination of rigorous scholarship and his dedicated commitment to improving the lives of working-class people will live on in this prize.

Eligibility

Graduate students and scholars, activists, and journalists who are no more than five years beyond the author’s highest degree are eligible to apply. Essays must be in English and should be primarily concerned with southern labor and working-class history broadly conceived. Applicants are not required to be members of SLSA at the time of the submission.

The winner of the Zieger Prize will be announced at the 2024 Southern Labor Studies Association conference, which will be held at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga September 20-21, 2024. We encourage applicants to the Zieger Prize to also submit proposals for the “New Directions” Workshop Series via the conference call for papers.

To be considered for the Robert H. Zieger Prize, applicants must submit their essays electronically by May 15, 2024, to the prize committee chairperson:

Paul Ortiz

Chair, Robert H. Zieger Prize Committee

Department of History
University of Florida

Questions: Email ortizprof@gmail.com